New Hampshire decided the presidency by inches in 2024.
The closest presidential race in the nation came down to raw vote margins that could fit in a high school gymnasium. When elections get this tight, every vote should count toward a winner who actually represents the majority.
But our current system doesn’t deliver that promise.
The Granite State’s Democratic Blind Spot
New Hampshire prides itself on democratic engagement. We take our “First in the Nation” status seriously. We show up to town halls, we ask tough questions, and we vote.
Yet we’re stuck with an electoral system that can crown winners without majority support.
Think about it. In a three-way race where Candidate A gets 40%, Candidate B gets 35%, and Candidate C gets 25%, we hand victory to someone whom 60% of voters preferred someone else over. That’s not representative democracy. That’s mathematical accident.
The Solution Already Works Elsewhere
Fifty American jurisdictions have moved to ranked choice voting, reaching about 13 million voters. Political scientists call it “the hot reform” in democracy for good reason.
Real Voters, Real Results
The math is elegant. Voters rank candidates by preference instead of picking just one. If no candidate gets a majority, we eliminate the last-place finisher and redistribute those votes to voters’ second choices. We repeat until someone reaches 50% plus one.
Simple. Fair. Democratic.
Critics worry about complexity, but evidence tells a different story. In Maine, more than 74 percent of voters found ranking their choices very or somewhat easy after the 2018 general election. In California cities using the system, 84% said they understood it well.
Voters aren’t confused by ranking their preferences. We do it naturally when choosing restaurants, movies, or job candidates. Electoral choices shouldn’t be different.
Beyond Better Math
Ranked choice voting delivers benefits that extend past mathematical precision. Candidates must appeal to voters beyond their base because they need second and third-choice rankings to win. This reduces negative campaigning and encourages coalition-building.
Money matters less when voters can express nuanced preferences rather than binary choices. Attack ads become counterproductive when you need to attract supporters of the candidate you’re attacking.
The New Hampshire Path Forward
Unlike states that adopted RCV through ballot initiatives, New Hampshire requires legislative action. We need to build grassroots support and elect representatives who understand that better electoral math serves everyone.
House Bill 345 in 2023 offered a smart approach. It would have enabled ranked choice voting for state party primaries and municipal elections through an opt-in system. Any party or municipality could adopt RCV without forcing participation on others.
That’s the New Hampshire way. Local control. Individual choice. Democratic innovation.
The Stakes Are Clear
New Hampshire’s 2024 presidential margins remind us that every vote carries weight in competitive elections. Our current system wastes that weight when it allows plurality winners to claim mandates they haven’t earned.
We can do better. We should do better.
Ranked choice voting offers New Hampshire a chance to lead on democratic reform the same way we lead on primary elections. The Granite State deserves electoral outcomes that reflect the actual will of its people, not the mathematical accidents of vote splitting.
The solution exists. The evidence supports it. The only question is whether we’ll choose to use it.
